I disagree! Mainly cause I'd rather see the Pyro be a CQC Monster rather than a nebulous supporty class that doesn't really do anything worth filling a class slot for.
This is a terrible idea, any damage should charge uber, and that's fine, if you take cover as a heavy after taking a couple of rockets you get uber faster, it's just strategy, you put yourself in the line of fire to take a few hits and have your medic charge uber.
- I'd still want the Medic to be able to heal burning individuals, but a semi-decent medic will turn afterburn, which should be a bad thing, into Uber Fuel. Damage that is dealt on slow and in low volumes is perfect for Medics to handle. Especially with the afterburn nerf. Pryo's that like to get into the mix and light up as many people as possible (which from a first-impressions perspective, should be good!) hurts his team a lot should the enemies have a medic. I'm not particular passionate about this change, but it would give the Pyro a small leg up in his counter-medic utility.
The cone of fire is fine, making it harder to aim won't make pyro more skillfull to play, in fact it'll make him even less useful, same goes for the minigun, which is great because you can change targets really quickly. And there's already a weapon that can shoot very quickly and requires great aim, it's called a pistol.
- Main issue with the Pyro's current cone of fire is that damage is VERY inconsistent. Testing shows that it has the potential to take wildly different lengths of time to do the same job, due to damage particles wandering off. Sometimes, you won't even hit at all. I'd want to have more of those particles travel down the reticule directly, IE tighten it up.
I actually like the pyro lowering spam a bit. So uh, I don't know. Making it cost no ammo is the real terrible idea, since you could pretty much go around juggling people for your teammates to kill. You can do that right now even, but you can't do it forever. I've had great pyros do it to me for quite a while. The fact that they can run out of ammo makes it a little less viable.
- I like lowering the spam to, but come on. One of the basic tenets behind the game is that you can't do harm to your teammates. Even the most terrible player is at least some HP to soak damage. But take a bad Soldier and a good Pyro and now there are big, big issues. And if a Pyro is juggling you forever... shoot him? I don't think I've ever been juggled more than twice before one of us ended up dead, for whatever reason.
I don't understand the obsession with giving the pyro a second jump. Soldiers and Demomen can do it but they have to give up some of their health to accomplish that. Scouts can do it for free, but it's their class gimmick.
- Well, the idea is that the Pyro fails at his intended role. "Intended" meaning a close combat class and not "poofman, pusher of stickies." I'm not excited about the idea of having an entire new unlock created, there are already too many. I'd rather see a more well thought out change, but just the small addition of being able to get to new area's to get the drop on people seems worth it. I mean, come on, are class gimmicks really sacred anymore anyway? We have x2 Cap Soldiers and Demo's, Close combat Demo's, Tank Spies, and Pyro's that are better at putting out fires than causing them.
The problem with having that much health was that an overhealed pyro could rush most sentries and kill them, no need to use ubers.
Didn't anticipate that. Maybe increases the arc for crits would be enough. Or something else?
And making him slower when actually firing makes your initial suggestion for increased speed pretty much moot.
- Well, not really. If the Pyro would FAN Jump and run faster, he'd get into flank position faster. Once there he would need to time his attack so that he can get as close as possible. Considering his damage is no longer pathetic (assuming my changes), he should be able to do his job. But if the opponent catches on and tries to escape, they should be able to do so, too.